The Illusionist again

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Postby Erwin » Feb 13th, '11, 17:46



Wow. How the mind plays tricks. I was certain I had seen John Gaughan's recreation of the orange tree on some show (BBC's History of Magic maybe?) and that it looked like a horrible tinny Victorian toy that wouldn't have impressed anyone even back then. Whatever it is that I remember seeing, it certainly wasn't what PD just showed off. That was beautiful, thanks Grimshaw. I'm now very disappointed that they CGI'd it for The Illusionist, previously I've believed it was for the best because of my memory of the clockwork apparatus being so poor.

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Postby Dar_Kwan » Feb 13th, '11, 17:51

I love the speech that Ed Norton's character (sorry can't remember the name) is awesome and I think every magician should watch at least that much of the movie.

Also I believe they used digital effects for the tricks because they wanted to portray them as how the spectators might have remembered them not as how they really were performed.

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Postby AnonymousZC » Feb 13th, '11, 17:56

After all this, I missed it. I thought it was on tonight, but was on last night (or the very early hours of this morning). Maybe I will watch it Wednesday at midnight (running into 2:10 thursday morning).

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Postby jim ferguson » Feb 13th, '11, 18:09

stardust wrote:Were the oranges produced by Paul Daniels edible like the ones in The Illusionist?
    Of course, in fact Robert Houdin would have them cut up and passed amongst the audience. There was one mechanical orange at the top of the tree, but the rest were genuine.
jim

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Postby jim ferguson » Feb 13th, '11, 18:31

stardust wrote:Where would one find out how the floating card is done? I really liked that bit. Is this a really old uncopyrighted thing that someone can pm me how it's done, or is there a video/book/tutorial you could point me in the direction of?
    Although as Dale pointed out this was a stage effect, it is entirely possible to duplicate the clip EXACTLY, and in close-up. Originally this would have used human hair, usually many lengths meticulously tied together (there was no IT in those days) an assistant, and a set-up.
Using one of the modern programmable ITRs and combining two common hook-ups this could be done without any assistance, and almost anywhere, even outdoors. It would look exactly as it does in the clip.
    jim


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Postby stardust » Feb 13th, '11, 19:07

There are a lot of things I am wishing to thank you all for...Firstly, pointing me in the direction of this film, which I absolutely loved! Secondly, the clip of the orange tree by Paul Daniels.....my internet is too slow to trawl through You Tube so thank you for the link, that tree was very beautiful. And thirdly, thank you for the floating card tips. I am looking forward to practising that one! :D

Last edited by stardust on Feb 13th, '11, 20:53, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby jim ferguson » Feb 13th, '11, 19:36

If you check the Forum of Visual Curiosities there is a thread called ''Uber Minds''. If you look half way through the second link you'll see another of Robert Houdins creations that you may like. Its a mechanical doll which is absolutely beautiful.
    There are also a few clips of Morgan and West who re-create the style of the period and are a joy to watch :)
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Postby jim ferguson » Feb 13th, '11, 19:45

Here is the link to my you tube channel. Theres nothing of my own up yet but if you check out my favourites there is some great magic there, including the Orange Tree. http://www.youtube.com/user/closeupmagi ... e=mhum#p/f

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Postby stardust » Feb 13th, '11, 20:09

That mechanical doll was lovely and Mr Morgan and Mr West are already firm favourites of mine! :D

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Postby papillion » Feb 15th, '11, 14:58

I adore The Illusionist. Magic, turn of the century, beautiful music, and butterflies as an added bonus - it's pretty close to my perfect film.

The commentary on the dvd/making of program (can't remember which) did explain why they used cgi for part of the orange tree. They had a partial tree built, which did part of the effect, then used cgi to enhance it, so that it would be just beyond what was physically possible. They did the same thing with most of the effects, using the authentic methods where they could, but using cgi to improve/enhance them.

It sounds like the idea was to show magic that was around at the time, but take it one stage further than would have been possible if they had done it for real. A great deal of the storyline revolves around whether Eisenheim was just a magician, or whether there was something more going on, so it makes sense to slightly alter all the effects to help create that doubt.

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